There are 1,645 Billionaires in the World, Only 11 are Blacks

Looking the Forbes Billionaires list for 2014, I noticed something I have never paid attention to before now. It was socking for me to discover that out of the 1,645 billionaires in the world, only about 11 are Blacks. It is sad but true. This list reminded me of a mentor of mine who when she was in Davos, Switzerland for the time for World Economic Forum, weep for 2 days because, according to her, only 3 blacks were present. She said almost everyone that attended that year came with their private jets.

According to Forbes.com, Bloomberg.com and CanadianBusiness.com there are currently 11 known black billionaires. They are as follows;

Nigerian business magnate Alhaji Aliko Dangote with a net worth of $25 billion is the world's richest black person and 23rd richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine's 2014 ranking of the worlds richest people.

On the 2014 edition of The World's Billionaires list, Forbes list nine black billionaires, six in Africa, one in the UK, one in the Middle East and two in North America. Michael Jordan has since joint the billionaire ranks, since the list was released in March 2014.

The eleven billionaires on our list has aggregate wealth of $61.9 billion, and a median age of 60 years. Nigeria's Alhaji Aliko Dangote accounts for 41% of that aggregate wealth. Black billionaires aggregate wealth represent less than one percent of the aggregate wealth of all billionaires.

The entire 2014 Forbes billionaires list which consist of 1,645 billionaires, has aggregate wealth of $6.4 trillion. There were 268 new billions added to the list in 2014.

Robert L. Johnson and Michael Lee-Chin were the first black people to be listed on Forbes magazines annual ranking of the World's Billionaires in 2001. Forbes mistakenly listed Mr. Johnson as the only black billionaire not recognizing Mr. Lee-Chin as being black.

Oprah Winfrey became the worlds first black female billionaire in 2003 and remained the only female black billionaire until 2013, when she was joined by Isabel dos Santos, Africa's first female billionaire and Folorunsho Alakija, Nigeria's first female billionaire.

Mr. Michael Lee-Chin did not make the Forbes Billionaire List since 2011, but he continues to make the Canadian Business 100 Richest Canadians List, which is published in November annually. His net worth was estimated at CAD $2.02 billion (USD $1.85 billion as of Nov., 2013). We will continue to list Mr. Lee-Chin on our list until he is no longer listed on any of our reference list.

Nigerians hold over 54% of the entire wealth of the blacks. The eleven black billionaires has aggregate wealth of $61.9 billion, of which the combine wealth of the four Nigerians on the list amount to $33.3 billion. Aliko Dangote alone commands $25 billion. The Blacks are wealthy but we aren't quite there yet. What do you think we can do to get better next year?